


All Teeth

by softcorescorn



Category: Original Work
Genre: Sneezing
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-06-18
Updated: 2018-06-18
Packaged: 2019-05-24 22:18:35
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,466
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14963231
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/softcorescorn/pseuds/softcorescorn
Summary: Gay wizard x rogue allergyfic, just for funsies.





	All Teeth

His vision still swam with the particulate haze of daylight as he stepped cautiously between the shallow, bioluminescent rockpools dotting the mouth of the cavern. By the time his eyes could accept the tunnel’s over-vivid, preternatural glow, a cool rush of air from somewhere deep underground had already closed around him.  
  
The steady trickle of water dripping from gnarled stalactites lured him down a smooth, stone corridor into the vast belly of the cave. At the center, an underground spring, sprawling and luminous, threw cold light into every corner of the chamber, as if the moon had gotten lost and drowned inside of it. The flimsy limestone spires Ivan had been stepping over the whole way down gave way to hearty mineral deposits. Some were thick as tree trunks and climbed high to spit knobby, green shadows on the ceiling. Others vibrated so intensely with raw, magical energy that Ivan-- who had never cast a spell in his life-- felt the blood in his calves buzz as he passed.  
  
He smiled at the heap of cloaks, cast off as carelessly as snakeskin on the bare rock. A few weeks ago, it had been rare for Amaranth to shed his scales in front of anyone else, but as their party had inched steadily southward, he’d had little choice. He’d even begun to talk idly about selling off some of the finer ones in the next town they reached. Ivan tried to swallow the little thrill of excitement he felt at hearing Amaranth talk like that-- like he wasn’t planning on going home at all anymore.  
  
A few paces ahead, between Ivan and the glow, Amaranth perched with one knee steadied against a slab of stone, carefully siphoning violet liquid into a row of flasks nestled neatly in a gravel deposit below. Ivan watched a delicate plume of steam rise from the mouth of each one, curling around the slow, measured bend of the man’s elbow. His back was turned. A small chain swung like a tiny pendulum from his earlobe-- just a glint of silver and bone, slowly winding and unwinding itself as he bent close to the bottles.  
  
“Beautiful…” Ivan remarked as he passed: heavy-footed on purpose. Keeping his hands to himself, on purpose. Amaranth flicked him a fond glance from the corner of his eye.  
  
“One of these might save your life.” Amaranth always spoke with consonants crisp and sharp as the north wind.   
  
Ivan knelt at the edge of the pool and plunged his hands in to the wrists without a second thought. He felt an immediate shock of relief-- almost too intense in its soothing-- like a bolt of mint lightning agitating the surface veins on his wrists, scurrying up his arms, nosily winding its way up to the tender gash on his right shoulder and burrowing inside.  
  
“What will the others do?” he asked.  
  
Amaranth snapped a hearty, sanguine pod, spilling a series of black seeds the size of pearls onto the slab before him. “Turn you into a little weasel.”  
  
Ivan slowly drew his cupped hands from the water and considered the tiny pool of iridescence held between them. “So... nothing?” He didn’t turn around, but hoped his exposed canines could be heard in the question. “‘It’s just pretty water’ is what I’m hearing.”  
  
“ _ehh’TSSCHt_ \--!”  
  
Amaranth sneezed fiercely behind him, in lieu of a reply. Also all teeth, in his own way-- it sounded as if he’d tried to bite it back, to keep it to himself-- but still it slipped out of him, with enough violence to echo deeply in the empty chamber.  
  
_“Bless_ you!” Ivan called out, at a similar volume so that disrupting the reverent quiet of the cave felt a little more collaborative. He smoothed a wet hand over the short hairs on the back of his neck, relishing the needling coolness of the drops running down his back, the naturally-occurring enchantment seeking out every ache he didn’t know he had. “I really, really hope this crazywater doesn’t--”  
  
“ ** _eh’TSSCH_** _h!_ ”  
  
Amaranth sneezed again, this time hard enough to send a congress of tiny cave lizards scattering for shelter among the stones. By the time a third had overtaken him, he had abandoned his instruments. Ivan was already to his feet, leaving a trail of faintly-glowing droplets on the raw stone as he closed the gap between them. Amaranth caught his eye for just a brief, green flicker of a moment before anything he’d had to express tumbled apart into pure urgency.  
  
_“ \--ehh’ **IH’TSCHOO**!_ _”_ He sneezed once more against the back of his wrist before whatever itch had overwhelmed him seemed momentarily satisfied. He straightened up. The pendulum in his earlobe still swung in the wake of it.  
  
Ivan stared at him, sympathetic and unsure. He didn’t know quite how to confront this new version of Amaranth, who pulled lightning from thin air. Amaranth, who he'd seen spit fire like a dragon within the week, caught now in the throes of a sneezing fit. He waited.  
  
Amaranth thumbed the side of his nose and sniffed like it might make a difference. “It won’t harm you,” his voice wavered, but there was no uncertainty in it.  “The water. There are springs like this all over the region, and we are intruders, but no harm will come to you for what you’ve just done. If that’s what you were asking.” His eyes burned beryl in the soft glow of the healing spring, but if they’d been talking under true moonlight, it would be clear how pink they’d gone at the corners.  
  
Ivan lowered his voice. “Are you alright?”  
  
Amaranth gave him a wry smile. “Of course,” was his answer, but it came out stilted and breathless. He turned away for a hazy second, shook his head slowly, let his eyes drift shut and seized an unsteady gasp as if the memory itself might be enough to make him sneeze again. But, with only a dissatisfied sniff, he relaxed back into his usual dark, even cadence. “Something in the saltgrass didn’t agree with me,” he explained, his eyebrows peaked apologetically as if Ivan might be as dissatisfied with this truth as he was. Amaranth wiped a few lingering tears from his eyes with the heel of his hand. “I was up to my neck in it. It’s been this way all afternoon,” he conceded, although seeing him this close, even in the preternatural dim, had already made it clear that he’d spent most of the time since they’d parted squinting miserably through itching eyes at scrawled recipe cards, biting his tongue to keep from sneezing during a delicate enchantment.   
  
“It’s no wonder,” Ivan said, gently pulling a few stray petals from Amaranth’s hair. He placed a bracing hand on his shoulder and gave him a gentle push. “Turn around.”  
  
Amaranth obliged. His shoulders were streaked with gold. Ivan could easily trace the history of his afternoon scavenging in pollen grains-- where he’d bent to examine a sprig of foreign berries, how he’d had to stretch to reach those seed pods. Ivan plucked a pair of burrs, clinging between his shoulderblades like lazy urchins, and flicked them off into the shadows before trying to brush away the rest with the back of his hand. He paused and, realizing the futility in what he was doing, stayed his palm flat against Amaranth’s chest instead. His shirt hung low at the neckline, a row of leather laces pulled loose against the heat. Ivan threaded his fingers through them, watching the soft, dark hairs beneath shift back into place as he tentatively stroked them against the grain.  
  
“You’re covered in the stuff--” Ivan explained, tucking his forehead against the crook of Amaranth’s neck. “-- I’m sorry to say,” he added as he felt Amaranth’s chest swell erratically beneath his fingertips, heard a flurry of ticklish gasps in his ear. Ivan unwound himself from Amaranth’s body just enough to give him space to sneeze unrestricted.   
  
“ _ah-- ehh’_ ** _TSSCHOO_** _!... hh-- heh’_ ** _ITSCHOO_** _!”_ __  
  
Not far enough that he didn’t feel it shudder through him, nor did he miss the exasperated sigh, just shy of a moan, that punctuated it.  
  
“Bless you…”   
  
When he’d recovered, Ivan slipped a hand back beneath Amaranth’s collar, sweeping one shoulder completely bare this time. He spoke close enough to feel the heat of his own words radiating off of Amaranth’s body. “For now--” he gestured at the abandoned flasks, cooled in the dirt, “-- give this a rest. Take a swim with me. You’ll feel better.” Ivan wound his way up Amaranth’s neck, taking his earlobe in his teeth and dredging up the start of a more genuine moan somewhere low in his chest. He felt the cool chain clip against his teeth as he withdrew. “I’ll wash out your things. But not right now.”


End file.
